1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composition for preventing and treating fatty liver and, more particularly, to a composition containing trivalent chromium lactoferrin, which can prevent and treat fatty liver.
2. Description of Related Art
Owing to the development in economics, populations suffered from fatty liver disease have gradually increased. Fatty liver disease is now recognized as the most common liver disease in the world. Moreover, fatty liver disease may progress to advanced fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma and might lead to serious public health problems. Therefore, it is really important for the modern people to study how to prevent and control the fatty liver.
The liver plays a central role in lipid metabolism, importing serum free fatty acids and manufacturing, storing and exporting lipids and lipoproteins. However, the metabolic abnormalities may impair hepatic lipid export, lead to hepatic triglyceride accumulation, and induce the fatty liver disease. Moreover, the fatty liver, which is easily attacked by adipocytokines and oxidative stress, results in the hepatocellular inflammation and fibrosis, and exacerbates disease progression.
The fatty liver disease is a complex metabolic disease. In clinical, the fatty liver only show that fat accumulates in the liver cells and usually dose not damage the liver. However, patients suffered from the fatty liver disease generally are associated with insulin resistance, including glucose intolerance, obesity, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipiemia. Several studies have reported that obesity, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, insulin resistance, and oxidative stress are major risk factors of the fatty liver disease. Therefore, the treatment of fatty liver is related to improve these risk factors of fatty liver. Many drugs are now being studied for potential medical therapy, including (1) drugs for treating insulin resistance, such as meformin, troglitazone, and rosiglitazone, (2) lipid-lowering medications, such as clofibrate and gemfibrozil, (3) liver protective drugs, such as ursodeoxycholic acid, and (4) antioxidants, such as vitamin E and betaine. However, the therapeutic effect of these drugs on the fatty liver is limited. To date, there is no proven effective therapies available for the prevention and control of fatty liver disease.